Whenever we bring a partner on board, especially if they are an agency, the first question is always “where are the quick wins?” Since in most cases they have been laser focused on English language up to the point where we start, it isn’t too hard to work up a quick list of things that will have an immediate effect on organic traffic. Here are a few areas we focus on at the beginning of a project:

Keyword Research

Since Not Just SEO focuses primarily on companies that are entering the Spanish-speaking market after having found success in English, we can usually put our clients into one of two categories that will inform where we need to begin working:

1) Pre-Translation

This is the best situation. It means that they have had the foresight to understand that the need to consider the marketing ramifications before entering the Spanish language market. Fairly rare.

2) Post-Translation

Even at big companies I’ve found that Spanish SEO initiatives start with a directive from someone at the top. Then someone goes out and hires a translation company. Only when the traffic numbers aren’t what they expected do they decide that it might be a good time to find a Spanish SEO company to lend a hand.

In some cases they have even attempted to optimize their pages by having their translation provider translate their top 100 keywords. Of course, translators don’t think about SEO, so the literal translations are junk. Extremely common.

Either way, going through and translating the top keywords can give our incoming clients an immediate shot in the arm. And Spanish keyword research doesn’t have to be expensive.

This leads right into…

On Page Optimization

Regardless of the language, there is so much to be gained just by correcting the structure of the metadata (or as recently happened, just writing it because the client site didn’t have ANY METADATA AT ALL).

Speaking of metadata, the incomparable AJ Kohn said something a couple months ago that really stuck with me. An in-house SEO had recently told me that they were now writing meta-titles as complete sentences instead of using pipes.

I was trying to figure out if there was an actual SEO basis for them to make this change, and he made the point that they might be applying a differentiation strategy. Since every other site in their SERP’s used pipes, using complete sentences might have a positive effect on their CTR.

PPC

This isn’t as great a tactic as it was two years ago, but is still a good idea. Since there is less competition for keywords, the CPC is generally lower than it for the US/UK market. We don’t handle a lot of PPC, but it is great way to generate some traffic and test assumptions. And if we are lucky we find a few keywords that drive revenue which helps to focus our SEO efforts.

Of course the same rules apply as in English. You have to have a great landing page, and you should be doing CRO constantly, you are paying for it anyhow, you might as well do it right.

Human Translation

Every once in a while a client will come to us after having implemented machine translation. Matt Cutts has clearly stated that machine translation is a considered web spam by Google. Not to mention that it is terrible for user experience and trust (trust is undervalued, especially when targeting potential customers in Latin America). Doing a human translation of the website is one of the easiest ways to improve organic traffic, as well as conversion rate.

Implement Authorship

In talking to the best SEO’s in the world, one of the primary commonalities that I’ve found is that they all understand opportunity cost. Implementing authorship and getting a headshot into the SERP’s is one of the quickest ways to increase your organic traffic. We’ve found this to be especially true in the Spanish speaking world. Our working theory is that seeing an author headshot increases the trust factor (or maybe we just like pictures more than words). In markets like ours where fewer companies & individuals are aware of SEO principles, this is one of the first things we do.

Link Reclamation

This is a twist on broken link building and my favorite tactic when starting a Spanish link building campaign. It’s best for established sites, especially big brands. Even so, we’ve found success using it for some SMB’s as well.

1) Check the link profile using OSE, Ahrefs or Majestic SEO. Download it into a spreadsheet.

2) ID any links from sites that are in Spanish. Honestly, this is the hardest part.

3) Write up an outreach email to these webmasters thanking them for the link, but letting them know that you’ve recently translated that content.

4) Done.

I’ve had some partners balk at this tactic because they don’t want to improve their Spanish site at the expense of the main website. But if links need to be relevant in order to help rankings, then doesn’t it follow that those Spanish language links are far more relevant to your ES site than EN? Also, if you are a believer in co-citation (or whatever you want to call it), as a present or future ranking factor then the benefit of having that Spanish language post pointing towards your homepage is probably close to nil.

We also use this technique when examining the assets that clients have already created. Anything that has more than a few hundred links is worth looking at to see if there are any high value Spanish language links pointing towards the page in question. Depending on the quality of said links we make the decision as to whether to localize the asset in question.

A large marketing website recently published an article talking about how Hispanics are ignored by companies that invest in new media.  The only evidence used were a few comments from important Internet properties like Terra and Univision.

No statistics, no dollar figures, nothing else.  Every piece of actual research that I have seen indicates that new media spend directed at US Hispanics has risen, even as companies continue to be confused about how to target them (“In this year’s survey, 48% of respondents cited their senior management’s push-back or lack of understanding, up from 31% in the 2010 survey.”).

The fact of the matter is if you are doing business in the US, you are probably selling to Hispanics already.  What you don’t know is that with very little effort or investment, you could make them your best customers.  But what makes us so special?  Here, let me show you:

Low Expectations

Since eCommerce sites generally ignore us, just a token effort can be a BIG deal.  For example, when Best Buy translated their website their site traffic went BANANAS.  Really.  They don’t release sales numbers, but according to an article in Forbes, visitors to the Spanish language site spend twice as much time as those who visit the English language site.

They also learned that there was a high demand for having bilingual sales people on staff, as well as an international demand that they are now meeting by opening stores in Mexico!

I’m not saying that all you have to do is translate your website and the sales will come to you, but because many companies haven’t gotten around to translating their websites, you can prove your concept before allocating additional resources.  If you want to learn more about how to do that, check out my Mozinar.

Loyalty

Hispanics have demonstrated that they are very brand loyal, so if you treat them right the first time, they will keep coming back.  They are also more receptive to marketing pitches, especially if you have established trust.

According to Adweek, 54 percent of Spanish-dominant Hispanics are “much more loyal to companies that show appreciation of our culture by advertising in Spanish.”

Social Interaction

OK, so experts are split on how much the social element of Hispanics is really helpful online.  And the data can’t really tell us very much.  So even though we know that Hispanics love Facebook and Twitter, we don’t know how much time they spend talking about brands.  Still, Hispanics like to ask their friends and family for suggestions regarding anything from where to get a mani/pedi to suggestions about a moving company.

This can take place on the platforms that we now call social media, or on platforms that are usually not bunched together with those like email and word of mouth.  That’s right, Hispanics love email and texting.  So if you’ve treated your Hispanic customers right, you could be getting referral traffic from “dark social”.

Buying Power

Sorry, I had to go back to the meme well for this one, but the urge is too much to resist.  Depending on who you believe, Hispanics buying power is currently between 700 billion and 1 trillion dollars.

TL:DR

If you aren’t considering Hispanics in your US marketing campaigns, you ought to.  Our base is growing fast, and you don’t want to be left out in the cold.  Investing in Spanish SEO now will pay dividends down the road.

You know the signs.  Maybe your company has started opening branches in other countries, you’ve seen an uptick in traffic from es-419 (Latin America), or maybe internationalization has become your CEO’s pet project.  No matter the reason, as an SEO your job becomes much more complicated (and interesting) when your company or client decides to go international.  Here are a few tips to make sure that your international venture is a success.

1)           Have a Plan

In Mexico, we have a saying: “Hombre prevenido, vale por dos”. Loosely translated it means, “A man who plans ahead is worth two”.  So before you do anything else, start with creating your action plan.  First, write out as much of the work that will need to be done as possible.  Prioritize the tasks, and secure the internal support you will need in order to get everything done.  Be sure to give yourself at least a 25% cushion when asking for resources, because it always takes longer/costs more than you initially think.

Then consider what will happen once the international site is completed.   What if someone actually contacts you through your foreign country sites?  Do you have distributors set up?  Who is going to answer emails?  Are you going to need a call center? You shouldn’t make huge investment before you get started, but be ready.

For SMB’s who are just venturing into the international sphere, we answer their phones for the first three months.  That is because the person who translated their website and is creating their marketing program is most qualified to help people at the beginning of the process.  This won’t work for everyone, but the point is that there are solutions that don’t involve spending tens of thousands of dollars.

Response times are very important internationally.  No matter the culture, the faster you respond, the more trust capital you will have gained.

2)           Do Your Keyword Research

This is probably the most challenging part of creating an international website, because it doesn’t depend on you.  Yes, you can use translation services to give you localized versions of your keywords, but how can you be sure that deliverables actually match searcher intent?  Considering that this will be one of the main building blocks of your international site (it will help determine your URL map, as well as metadata and content plans), you shouldn’t skimp.

First create a series of steps and filters like we did in this blog post about Spanish keyword research.  Then hire a local SEO company to follow your instructions.  Then hire a second company to verify the work.   Since we do a lot of keyword translation the review is something we do internally (shameless self-promotion), but most companies don’t go that extra mile.

If you are on a really tight budget, then use Elance or oDesk, but remember “lo barato te puede salir caro” (going cheap can be expensive).

3)           Subdirectories not Subdomains

For many companies, when you are brainstorming about ways to grow in the next quarter, decision-makers start out excited, but when you bring them cost, this is their reaction:

If you have a good sized budget, it is always best to purchase the TLD’s for the countries you plan to target and create great, unique content for each site.  But companies that don’t have the resources (or the C-level support) have to choose from between subdomains and subdirectories.

If you have a good sized budget, it is always best to purchase the TLD’s for the countries you plan to target and create great, unique content for each site.  But companies that don’t have the resources (or the C-level support) have to choose from between subdomains and subdirectories.

Aleyda Solis wrote a great article detailing the advantages and disadvantages of all three options so there is no need to go into great detail about the pros and cons, but suffice to say that we always recommend subdirectories.  They leverage the authority of your existing site, are easy for users (and programmers) to understand, and you can change the URL’s if necessary.

4)           Hreflang and Canonical

Getting this right is one of the more complicated aspects of international SEO.  If your international website is going to serve the exact same content to multiple countries (and therefore multiple search engines), then you need to implement the Hreflang tag to indicate to Google that this is not actually duplicate content.

We always advise that you localize content as much as possible, but for example if you are going to serve the same Spanish language content to all Latin American countries, but with a unique URL for each.  This is when you would want to implement the Hreflang tag.

In these cases it is best not to use the Canonical tag. As Dejan SEO states:

It’s best to utilise rel=”canonical” if the two pages are truly the same thing. If there are differences, even subtle, which may be relevant to region/language then it’s best not to canonisalise it in order to help Google serve the best content to the right type of audience.

Note: After writing this section I found an article that proposes an excellent solution to this problem.  Basically you can implement the =Hreflang from the sitemap.  Doing a happy dance!

5)           Translate The URL’s

Keeping your URL’s in English when translating the website can seem like the easiest way to go, but if you do you are missing out on one of the easiest ways to rank for your keywords.  Yes, exact match domains are losing ground, but one of the first lessons I learned in SEO was that you can’t rank for a keyword if it’s not on the page.  The URL is part of the content on our site, so why not signal to search engines that the keyword is important to you?

And if your keyword research is as good as it should be, you already have the source information that you need in order to create excellent localized URL’s.

These are just a few of the basics that need to be considered when starting an International SEO project.  Do you have any tactics that have worked for you in the past?  Also feel free to ask questions in the comments below, I’m always ready to help.

To most people mole is something that they order in a restaurant.  To me, it’s like mothers milk.  See, my father was a trumpet player in the symphony orchestra, and they toured all over Mexico.  I couldn’t always go along, but I remember sitting on big buses for hours at a time, stopping only for food at little shacks that only the bus driver knew existed.

So I tasted mole in Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero and many other places before I even knew its name.  But I always knew what it was.  At most small restaurants here they don’t actually have a menu.  They give you a choice of dishes for the day and that is it.  And I could see by the smiles and the number of people who ordered it, that mole was a favorite.  But the best mole wasn’t what we would eat on tour, but what we would eat in people’s homes.  Thirty plus musicians and their families would get together to celebrate holidays and inevitably someone would bring pollo con mole Xiqueño.  My mom raised me as a vegetarian, but even as a small child I was curious about food, and would try tiny bites of whatever everyone else was eating.  The combination of sweet and spicy left a zing on my tongue that most closely resembles a ringing in your ears.

We left Mexico before I turned twelve, and while I went back every summer, mole stopped being a part of the experience, so much so, that I almost forgot it existed.

When I worked in a Mexican restaurant during college, people would order mole, and really enjoy the experience.  I couldn’t.  Burritos and fish tacos were fine, but there was something about them reheating the chicken in a microwave, and then pouring the sauce over the top that just offended my sensibilities.  The restaurant was a fun, kitschy place to work (the motto was “Praise the Lard!”), and I enjoyed most of the other things they served, but I could never bring myself to recommend that particular dish.  I would go to other “high-end” places where the mole was purported to be excellent, but it never quite met my expectations.  Even though I hadn’t eaten mole in Mexico for the better part of the decade, something in my subconscious rejected what was offered.

Then, about eight years ago I came back to Xalapa, and on a whim my friends and I decided go see la Cascada de Texcolo, a waterfall right outside Xico that drops over 70 meters (about 230 feet). 

When we got there the memories came flooding back. As a child, we would hike to the bottom and sit at the base all day, swimming in the cold water, checking out the minnows swimming in the pools behind the rocks, and laying in the larger ones to take in the sun. The path was all fenced off because the hike was deemed too dangerous for tourists, but it was still a pretty cool place. Literally. The temperature is lower than the rest of Xico, just from the water.

My friends and I walked around, saw the bridge that was bent by the 1985 earthquake (7.5 on the Richter scale) and went swimming for a while.

Since we had nothing else to do that day, we decided to walk around town and take it easy.  Xico is a quaint little town, known for being the site of much of the classic movie Romancing the Stone, as well as A Clear and Present Danger and Collateral Damage.  The colonial architecture is pleasant, and the people are friendly.  Most tourists know Xico for a yearly festival where they make tapetes, which are carpets made from flower petals.

But we weren’t there during that time of the year, and as usually happens when I get bored, I start looking for something to eat.  Tucked away on a side street near the center of town we found El Acamalin.  There, we feasted on mole, chiles en caldillo (Probably my favorite thing to eat in the world. Chipotles stuffed with pork, raisins, spices and more, then dropped in a tomato-based broth with almonds, thyme, and olives) and Xonequi, a black bean soup with corn balls that reminds me of motzah.

Ever since, whenever people visit, we take them to this hidden gem.  They serve morita, a sweet blackberry liquor as an aperitif, complementary tapadas (small black bean empanadas with polvo de aguacate) and treat every customer like family.  I would have liked to bring you some of their mole, but their containers are not up to spec, and can’t go through customs

Their marketing is all word of mouth. But it doesn’t matter because they are always full.  Good food speaks for itself, just like good marketing.  The restaurant is only open on weekends, because that is how they like it.  The lower floor has been converted to a dining area, but the family still lives upstairs. I’ve offered to build them a website, improve their packaging for export, and find freight forwarders to help, but they just smile and shake their head. “The guero thinks we need more,” they say when they think I can’t hear them. 

This brings me to the reason for writing this post.

Relationship marketing.

When Rand Fishkin wrote his excellent Restaurants and Bar Guide to Seattle, he included this tidbit on his list:

Which led to this exchange on Twitter:

When I went to MozCon last month, I handed Rand a jar of Mole Xiqueño, and then knowing he was very busy, promised to give him a workable recipe and scooted. Since Rand is the only one who got a jar, nobody else can really use this post for cooking purposes (but if you skip to the bottom, I’ll tell you how to get your own, or make it from scratch).

In Mexico, creating a relationship is the only way to do business.  Almost every business deal can be traced back to a pre-existing connection between the two parties.  People on the outside call it “corruption” or “cronyism”, and in some cases that’s true.  But most of the time if someone gets a piece of business it’s because they remembered a birthday, celebrated an anniversary or bought them a whole pig for a roast (true story).

The catch is that the relationship has to be genuine.  If you just start showing up with presents, people will feel like you are trying to buy them, and that is the kiss of death.  This is why I’m not counting on Rand to tweet this out to his followers, recommend us as a Spanish SEO and inbound marketing company or provide us with the links necessary to leapfrog onto the first page for my main keyword phrases.

I’m doing it because it was the best way for Rand to actually know who I am.  Hopefully the next time I see him we will be able to have a conversation.  And if I get a chance to talk to him about what we do, and why my company exists, well that would be great.

But it would be easy to misunderstand the gesture.  Just like it is easy to misunderstand mole.

Everyone in the U.S. basically knows it as “that awesome sauce that has chocolate in it,” but nobody has any idea what goes into it besides that main ingredient. Unfortunately, the generalization is completely unfair. Every region in Mexico has its own type of mole, and they all taste different (in that link there are twelve different types of moles, and the author even admits in the comments that it isn’t close to covering all the versions that exist).

The term mole can describe almost any traditional dish, but in the U.S., all mole will be judged against what is served in a restaurant.  Here are the three versions accepted across Mexico as the most valid interpretations:

#3 Mole Poblano:

This is the one served in most Mexican restaurants in the U.S. It’s not particularly spicy, but is pretty sweet and very thick (they use corn starch or flour).  The sesame seeds are a staple of the region. By the way, Puebla has some other amazing food like these huge chiles rellenos (don’t try these at home) or the best sandwich in Mexico.

#2 Mole Negro

This mole  is associated with Oaxaca. The chocolate is unsweetened, but the flavor of the cacao and the chiles make this one pretty harsh for the unaccustomed palate. It’s reeeeally good. I eat this when I am in Oaxaca, but never order it outside of that region. I don’t trust anyone younger than 70 to prepare it correctly, and the best versions usually come from the mercado. Very few U.S. restaurants serve this (although most claim they do).

#1 Mole Xiqueño

This is like getting punched in the mouth by flavor. It is spicier than its more chocolaty counterparts to the point where you NEED the rice and preferably a cold beer to maintain the balance. It is not as spicy as some moles I’ve tried (the mole in Tuxpan has so much chile that it is actually bright red), but is just spicy enough that you might break a sweat. I have never been in a U.S. restaurant that serves this version.

Here is the recipe. It was given to me by a Doña Cristi who has owned her stand in the mercado nearby for over 30 years.

Mole Xiqueño

Click here to make mole sauce from scratch via Zarela.com

Ingredients:

2 Heaping tablespoons of Mole Xiqueño

1 Liter of chicken stock or water

4 pieces of chicken (dark meat is best)

There are two ways to prepare this. You can either pre-boil the chicken to create the stock, or you can combine the water with the mole from the start, and then add the chicken. We always do it the first way in my house (we make extra stock for soup), but Doña Cristi suggested the other way as being a way to add more flavor. Gives me the heebie-jeebies though.

To make the stock, boil the chicken for about 15 minutes in enough salted water to cover the thighs, then turn off the stove and pull the chicken out and put it on a plate.

Get a large frying pan or cast-iron skillet and turn up to medium heat. Put the mole in the pan right away so that it warms slowly. Add the stock a cup at a time until the mole dissolves. The consistency should be soupier than what you have seen from mole in the past. In fact at this point, it should be pretty liquid, but the color should be a very dark brown.

Add the chicken, turning it over to make sure the sauce covers the chicken. For Mole Poblano, the sauce and the chicken are cooked apart and the sauce is poured on top. In Veracruz, we believe mixing the chicken with the mole makes the flavor richer. Since the chicken is already cooked, you can let it simmer as long as you like, but remember that you want the texture to be more like tomato soup than molasses.

Plate the chicken and pour more of the sauce over the top. It should take over your plate. Put some rice on the side (we like red rice, recipe to follow). Serve with corn tortillas and a small green salad. If you are feeling really crazy, shave some onions and radishes, marinate them in lime juice while you are cooking, and use them as a topping along with queso fresco. Yum!

Notes:

This sauce is NOT vegetarian, so please don’t serve it to someone who is. It also contains nuts, so allergies can be a problem as well.

While chicken is the most popular vehicle for this sauce, my wife frequently makes enmoladas which are really just enchiladas with mole. For those, just make the sauce as previously instructed, and then drop folded tortillas into the sauce. Move them around until they are coated and serve. Top with queso fresco (grated mozzarella will do in a pinch) and thinly sliced onion.

Red Rice:

Rice

Chicken Stock

1 ripe tomato

1/8^th of an onion

1 clove of garlic

1 carrot (diced small) or ½ cup of frozen peas

½ stick of celery or one piece of cilantro or parsley

Salt to taste

Make a tomato paste:

Put the tomato, onion and garlic into the blender. If your tomato isn’t fully ripe, you might have to add water. In Mexico, we would roast the tomato first, but it is not mandatory.

So, in Mexico we like to toast the rice before we cook it. Get a pot and put it on medium heat. Put however much rice you plan on making in the pot. As it heats up, move the rice around with a wooden spoon until it changes color from white to light yellow.

Add the tomato paste and stir. Once it has been fully integrated, add the chicken stock (you can use water, but the flavor is not as full).

Add the peas or carrots and the celery (or substitute). Let the rice cook.

Serve with anything, but it is great with the mole recipe I gave you.

For most of you, the recipe would be lacking the main ingredient, but as a way for us to start building a relationship (see what I did there?), I make the following proposal:  Get in touch with me and let’s trade.  I will send you a jar of mole, and you send me something delicious (that can travel internationally).  And let’s keep in touch.  You never know when you will need someone to help you with a bilingual (or tri-lingual) project, or I will need someone with your skill-set.

To Rand, I hope you enjoy the mole, and please let me know how it stacks up to the version they serve in La Oaxaceña. If for some reason the recipe doesn’t work, you could always do a MozCation here sometime, or I can bring another jar and make some for the Mozzers next year!

So let’s get this out of the way first.  Mozcon was an amazing conference.

The sessions were great.  In most cases they had actionable tips that we will be able to put to work for our clients starting tomorrow.  The speakers were genuine and funny, and all seemed to be passionate about the work that they are doing.  There were tips for Excel, API’s and actionable link building tips.  In short, every other SEO conference has a lot to live up to (this was my first conference, but I’ve been to others outside of this industry, and usually it is just vendors pimping their products and experts who don’t want to share their secrets).

Of course there are always things that people complain about.  It’s the nature of human kind to think that nothing is ever good enough.  That being said, I’m by nature an upbeat person, which is why I want to show that all the things that people complain about actually had an upside.  In fact, I would say they ended being some of the best parts of being there! Once I’ve shown that all the things people were upset about were actually helpful to the overall experience I’ll give you some actionable tips that will help you get more out of the conference next year.

Problem: No Wi-Fi

Benefit: Total Engagement in the Sessions

This was easily the thing that I heard people complaining about the most.  There was already something written about this here, but if there had been dependable Wi-Fi not only would I have been on Twitter checking everything in real-time, but I also would have been on Skype chat with my team, answering emails, and generally not being as directly engaged with the presentation.

Actionable Tip: Don’t depend on their Wi-Fi

Bring your own hotspot.  If that is not an option, then make contingency arraignments in case the internet goes out.  Tell your team you will be unavailable during sessions, set up an auto-response for email, and if you have an actual crisis, head over to the lounge.  They had a TV set up along with working Wi-Fi so you could still listen to the sessions while you worked.  I also saw a couple people head to the lobby where the Wi-Fi appeared to be extremely dependable.

Problem: Long Lines for Escalators and Food

Benefit: Networking Opportunity

If you ended up missing out on a particular dish that you wanted, that sucks.  But if you had to wait in line for a while, it forced you to talk to the people in line with you.  I ended up making several connections that might very well lead to new business for my company, just by being friendly while waiting to eat.

Actionable Tip: Take The Stairs.

If there are a ton of people at the escalator and the elevator, then use your legs and walk quickly down the stairs.  I only did this on Wednesday because I was busy talking to the speakers (hence my waiting in line), but that day I ended up being among the first to eat, even though I was one of the last to leave the session.

Problem: Only One Track

Benefit: Focus and Engagement

I actually didn’t hear anyone complain about this, but for those who are accustomed to choosing which speaker they want to hear, I can imagine this being a perceived issue.  But in my opinion it meant that when you left the room to eat a meal or take a break, everyone was talking about the same stuff, and everyone could use it as a point of reference.  This made breaking the ice with people incredibly easy!

Actionable Tip: Pay Attention!

If there had been other tracks, I might have chosen a session that was more closely related to what we do on a regular basis than using social PPC tools to target your potential customers. Marty Weintraub ended up blowing my mind, and making me think about the possibility of using these strategies for content planning purposes!  There were a ton of other examples, but I’m keeping those to myself .

Problem: Too Many People Talking to the Speakers

Benefit: Eavesdropping

If you waited in line to talk to Rand, or Mike King or Wil Reynolds, it kinda sucked, right?  Wrong.  Just listening to the conversations that they would have with other people was super useful!  On several occasions I actually got the answer to my question; just by listening to other people talk to your celeb SEOs.

Actionable Tip: When you see two really smart people talking, just walk up and listen to them.

I had the chance to hear Marty and AJ talking to each other.  It was incredible to hear two of the most amazing people in the SEO field share ideas.  Granted, I only understood about 20% of what they said, but even that ended up making me think about a ton of other stuff that I can use. Then, approach the same experts on social media and ask a follow up question.  Since they aren’t being overwhelmed by fans, you might actually get a long thought out answer and spark a friendship.

Problem: Too Many People At The Conference

Benefit: So. Much. Networking.

Being from Mexico, we know about crowds, and this was nothin’.  I met so many people, most of whom will never be a customer of mine, but just to hear others talking about search with such passion convinced me that we will not only survive the updates, but I’m now certain that those who make the leap to Inbound Marketing will thrive.  Oh, and I also ended up with a stack of business cards from people who might want to collaborate.

Actionable Tip: As an ex-Biz Dev guy, this felt like shooting fish in a barrel, so I have a list of guiding principles.  In fact, it could be its own post, but here are a couple of things you should keep in mind if you need to network at a conference like this one.

Never sit with the same people twice.

It can be very comfortable to find some people you like and eat with them at every meal, but you are missing tons of opportunities to meet new people.

Ask about what they do, and ask follow up questions.

If you spend all your time pitching yourself or your project, people won’t want to talk to you.  Honestly I think I spent more time talking about other people’s business than I did about mine (I hope).  Of course people are polite so they are going to ask about what you do, so be prepared.  But don’t make it a point of emphasis.

Smile

Not all the time, because that would be weird.  But remember, all these people are awesome and so are you…show that that you are genuinely happy to talk to them.

Side note:  Several people who seemed interested in collaborating didn’t bring business cards (or didn’t want to give me their info).  When you are trying to get things done, #RCS dictates that you have to have business cards.  I highly recommend having at least two hundred on hand…I gave out over a hundred.

Problem: Not Enough Bacon

Benefit: NONE.

So, we understand that you guys had a ton of other things to worry about, but when you put on the first slide of the conference that there will be BACON, you have to come through.  Only one meal out of six included anything that was bacon related, and let’s be real, that is not enough.  “Hey Zeph,” you might say “There was Canadian Bacon on the breakfast sandwiches the first day.”  Sorry guys that does not count.

Actionable Tip: Bring Your Own Bacon

In all seriousness, this is actually something for the Mozzers.  I honestly thought that the bacon theme was going to be a big part of the conference.  I was looking forward to bacon milkshakes, bacon cupcakes, and tons of other bacon related food that I had never thought of (bacon vodka anyone?).  You guys generally do such a good job on following through on your promises that we hold you to a higher standard, so we need you to step up!

Mozcon was such a great experience for me personally that I truly have no complaints (except for the bacon thing).  Everyone came through.  I may or may not get some additional work out of it (pretty sure I will), but so many other things came out of it.  I have an amazing guest posting opportunity from a presenter at the conference, Ian Lorie and Sha Menz said they had read my tweets, and I got to talk for a minute with the incredibly sweet Brittan Bright (Mike King is a lucky guy).  When it appeared that my laptop had gone missing, the whole Moz team mobilized and found it in less 10 minutes (thanks to all the team members who were involved in that.  This post literally would not exist without them).   Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to help me, including Jennifer Sable Lopez, for finding said laptop.

Thanks to Kane Jamison for liveblogging MozCon, his posts have been my go to spot for reminding myself about who said what.

Did anyone have anything else that they felt could be improved on?  What else would you like to see next year?

A few days ago I read this excellent article about Hispanic assimilation by Jose Villa.  Basically, his hypothesis is that as more Hispanics are born in the US, they are more likely to simply identify as American, rather than with their home country.  Furthermore (he argues) that means that while you should still consider Hispanics when you are creating marketing campaigns, that in many situations it simply translating your marketing concept and calling it a day will not work.  In this he is absolutely correct.  However, this does not mean that you shouldn’t have a Spanish language website.

Here are a few reasons to hire a Spanish SEO specialist:

There is still a large Hispanic community that prefers to search/read/purchase in Spanish

• According to comScore, over 20% of US Hispanic internet users only look at Spanish language content, and another 28% prefer to Spanish language content when they have a choice.

Even if the assimilated Hispanics don’t read the Spanish language site, they appreciate the effort (and if you do it wrong, they will make fun of you).  Seriously, I do this all the time.  Usually I just make snarky comments to the people I work with, but friends and family members have been known to get emails from me with lists of terrible translations.

The US is not the only market to consider:

Best Buy translated their website with the plan to target Spanish speaking customer in the US.  However, once they saw how much traffic they were getting from Latin America, they changed their strategy and started expanding to the region.  Today they have 8 stores in Mexico , with plans for future expansion.

As long as you don’t sell beds or lawn furniture, shipping your products to Latin America has never been easier.  There are several services that will ship products bought in the US to anywhere in Latin America (www.puntimio.com is a good example), or talk to your current shipping provider.  International rates are getting cheaper all the time.

People who lived in the US are moving to Latin America in ever growing numbers.  Some of them are people who emigrated to the US to work and then have gone home.  Others are US expats who want to retire abroad.  In fact, did you that the US News & World Report listed 11 Spanish dominant countries among their top 18 places to retire?

Hispanic Internet Users & Their Spanish Browsing Preference.So what is stopping you from translating your website?  In case you hadn’t noticed, we have a standing offer to translate and optimize one page on your website for free.  Any other roadblocks? What are you waiting for?

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When beginning a Spanish inbound marketing project, one of the first determinations that you will need to make is how to address the people you are targeting. In Latin America this can be tricky, as there are many social norms that must be followed. To further complicate matters, these customs change depending on the country, as well as your target consumer. This infograph will help you navigate the differences in how to address others.

Zeph Snapp

Whether you are considering outsourcing your Spanish SEO projects, or have decided to keep the project in house, this post will give you a deeper understanding of how to proceed.

Keyword Research:

This has to be the starting point for any online marketing program, PPC or SEO. Potential customers come to us all the time and say “I want to rank for keyword X”. This is the wrong way to approach any online marketing project, but in Spanish it’s a bigger issue because each country/region could have a different way of referring to the same thing.

Keyword -> “Cacho”

• All the Countries: Horn, bone of the skull apendix of some animals
• Spain and Mexico: Piece, portion of something
• Colombia: Joint
• Ecuador: Lie, usually humorous
• Bolivia and Chile: Problem
• Honduras: Phone
• Salvador: Type of bread with sesame seeds
• Venezuela:Infidelity, adultery

Keyword Discovery:

You start the same way as you would in English…(Brainstorming all the possible terms that someone could use to find your site, find synonyms, checking your  Google Analytics data to see what keywords people are using to find you, etc.) Maybe you already have this research for your English site and figure, “hey, I’ll just translate this!” Unfortunately, it is not that easy. First you have to think about your target market. Even if you decide you want a general Spanish language campaign, you still have to ensure that none of the translated phrases are offensive (this happens more often than you might imagine).
By the way, Google Translate is not really an option when doing this. It might give you some basic ideas, but once you get past the single words and start translating long-tail keywords, GT is toast.
Some of the phrases it brings back are twisted, or just plain wrong. Just for fun, check out this application that shows the proof is in the pudding.

At the very least you need to hire someone who is a native Spanish-speaker, preferably one who is literate enough to know something about the different meanings a word or phrase might have. If you are going after multiple markets, unless you have someone who has travelled extensively or is extremely well-read, then you have to get someone from each market to take a look at both your English and Spanish lists to vet the terms.

Another great way to do keyword discovery (in any language is to use the Google Instant.  Type your keyword phrase into the google search bar (from the version of google.es, .mx or whatever market you are going to target).  You’ll see terms come up as suggestions.  Add those terms to your list for qualification.

OK, now you have a list of 200 keywords. The next thing you need to do is feed them into a keyword tool so that you can see what kind of potential they have. If you are going after multiple countries in Latin America, then you need to feed them through for each country. We like the SEOmoz Keyword tool, but if you don’t want to spend the money then the Google Keyword Tool  will do.
However if you go with the Google tool be sure to change the settings to Exact.  Otherwise your possible searches are going to look huge.  We also suggest that you click the button that says only provide terms that are closely matched. This will allow you to get traffic numbers on the keywords you already have.

Qualifying Your Keywords

First you need to figure out your branded keywords and set them aside. Next, start breaking down the keywords into categories. For example, if you sell car parts, you might put all the words related to mufflers in one category, brakes in another, filters in another and so on. This makes each list more manageable.

Then you take those lists and run them back through the Google Keyword Tool, but this time you let it suggest possible keywords based on your target market. You keep doing this for each country that you plan on targeting, and separate the results. This process can be long and arduous, but its importance should not be overstated. Without excellent keyword research your whole campaign will be a failure.

Now that you have a preposterously long list, you have to decide the keywords that are most important. Assuming you’ve followed the process that we list above, you have at least 5 keyword lists divided by category first and by country second. It should look something like this:

Then we look for slight variations on the same keyword. These go in a different color but directly below.

Finally we start qualifying the remaining keywords. What we are looking for is a balance between competitive and traffic. Obviously if a branded keyword has high competition that doesn’t mean that we throw it away, but at least we know what we are up against.

Organizational structure is up to you, but we like to create tiers that are color-coded. This makes them easy to find. Generally we separate into the following groups: Core Keywords, Informational, Transactional, Singular/Plural and Long Tail. Rinse and repeat for each market.

Having an excellent keyword document is essential to a great SEO campaign in language, especially in Spanish because there are so many additional markets to consider. In another post we can address different ways to use Social Media Management for keyword research, something that has been addressed very well by iPullRank‘s excellent post on the SEOmoz blog.  What do you think?  Did I miss any essential techniques?

Zeph Snapp